grainy photos = strain and drain on brain

I bought a new camera!  I had to order a special memory card that won't be here for a day or two, though, so...I had to rely on my terrible, terrible cell phone for photos (seriously, why is it so bad?).  

A week in grainy photos:

Sunflowers are finally huge!  Do you see Todd in there?

He's getting ready to pick tomatoes.  The tomato/2nd sunflower patch is pretty big, and it's bursting.  Finally.  I've got to crack the formula for starting seeds indoors early enough to have tomatoes all summer long!

Apples are getting close to being picked...within a month, anyway.  It's been so cool that it's hard to believe that it's early August!

The annual garden is popping.

Another view that my normal camera lens isn't wide-angle enough to get:

Still some color in the perennial garden too...

...and still some pesky critters around.

oleander aphids

The weather has been nice enough to set up our croquet set...

we have to take it down every other week for lawn mowing!

...but we're still inside playing new games, like Patchwork.  Patchwork is one of the great discoveries of the summer.  It sounds incredibly simplistic (use buttons to buy fabric pieces and make individual quilts Tetris-style, whoever has the most buttons at the end wins!), but it's layered (get it?  quilt?  layered?) in strategy.  It's for just 2 people and it takes around 20 minutes to play a game.  Perfect.

Speaking of "patchwork," I also did a bit of patchwork sewing for the first time in months.  I'd picked up a "cat cave" at a thrift store for $6.  Looked new, but I washed it several times.  It did not fare well in the wash.

I hate wasting money...even $6.  So I took some spare fabric, put on an episode of Law & Order, and whip-stitched around the edges to cover the foam.

It was so cute that if they had loved the cave, I would've patchworked the entire thing!  They showed an initial interest...

...but then got bored and ignored it.  Sigh.  They're spending some time sleeping in these late summer days...

...but they're mostly still rambunctious and getting into trouble...climbing things they shouldn't, scratching things they shouldn't, and chasing things they shouldn't (Calliope).  I'm hoping that they'll be more relaxed soon...right??

Have a great week!